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Ever wonder why there were so many deaths of our ancestors in 1822, 1823?
The epidemic of 1822 exceeded that of 1807, was similar in nature but proceeded from an exactly opposite condition of the weather. The summer of 1822, unlike that of 1807 was very dry and hot. There was not only little rain but what did come was not accompanied, as is usual in summer, by lightening, that great purifier of the atmosphere, and there was scarcely one strong, clearing wind from the north or northwest, during the season. Hot winds blew almost constantly from the south. The Ohio and Muskingum were reduced by the drought, so that "they were mere brooks as compared with their usual size. The water was covered with a foul scum, and a green mold gathered upon the rank grass which grew along the shores and down into the beds of the streams. Dr. Hildreth's opinion was that the fever had its origin from the sandbars and beaches of the Ohio river laid bare by the great drought. Some people thought that the disease was imported by the almost constantly blowing south wind. The fever varied from the mildest intermittent types, up to the genuine yellow fever. Ague, cholera morbus and dysentery were also prevalent. At on time, within a single square mile containing a population of about twelve hundred souls, four hundred were sick with some form of disease attributed to the drought and hot weather. Dr. Hildreth had about six hundred cases to care for between the first of July and the close of November. The fever was most widely disseminated in September. It first appeared upon the plain or higher ground in June, but in July most of the cases were in Harmar, and it did not become troublesome at the Point until August. The proportion of deaths was about one to sixteen of the number of persons affected. The people became much alarmed as the season advanced and the deaths became more numerous.
On September 15th a public meeting was held at which committees were appointed to visit the sick, and supply them with whatever necessities they might be lacking. Upon the eighteenth another meeting was held, of which Dudley Woodbridge, jr., was chairman, and William A. Whittlesey, secretary. The reports of the committees appointed three days before showed that over three hundred persons were sick in Marietta---a number bearing about the same proportion to the population (Two thousand) that twelve hundred would be to the present.
Resolutions were adopted setting forth that "the distressed situation of our fellow-citizens and friends calls for the utmost exertions and deepest humiliation;" that "we will exhort and encourage each other in visiting the sick," and that, "looking beyond the sword of pestilence to Him who wields it, we humble ourselves before Almighty God, and recommend to our fellow
citizens a day of public fasting, humiliation and prayer, imploring the pardon of our sins, individually, and as a people, the arrest of the pestilence which ravages our town, and grace to receive and do all things, as those who have hope in the Lord." Henry Dana Ward and William R. Putnam were appointed a committee to wait on the Rev. S. P. Robbins of the Congregational, and Rev. Cornelius Springer of the Methodist church, and request them to agree upon a day of fasting, and if agreeable unite the congregations in its solemn service. The ministers gave public notice that Saturday, September 21st, would be observed in accordance with the resolution of the citizens' meeting, as a day of fasting and prayer. The service was held at the Congregational church. It was noted a few days later by the American Friend that with the exception of fifteen or twenty who were quite low the people generally were recovering, and that very few new cases had occurred. It was not, however, until hard frosts came in November that the epidemic was stopped. No less than ninety-five persons died in Marietta township during June, July, August, September and October of 1822.
The sickness of 1823 seemed to be a new breaking out of that of 1822, but, unlike the epidemic of that year, this one was not confined to the water courses of their immediate vicinity. The spring, says a newspaper writer (R. M. Stimson) reviewing the subject, was pleasant, with every prospect of a salubrious summer. But how sad the disappointment. The sickness broke out in June and pervaded nearly all parts of the west. The country was deluged with rain in June and July, with very little thunder and lightening and no heavy winds. Every spot that could hold water was filled with it. Fields of wheat and corn were ruined and grass rotted. The low land exhaled noxious vapors, so that people in passing were obliged to put their hands to their noses and hasten through some disgusting spots.
In plowing in rich bottom lands, instead of the pleasant odors that usually arise from freshly plowed land a sickly smell would be sent forth. The rains ceased the last of August, but the systems of the people had become charged with miasma. The disease was more malignant and fatal in the country than in town, especially in rich bottoms, where weeds grew in many places to the enormous height of fifteen or eighteen feet.
In spite of the draw back on corn in the early part of the summer, the crop was heavy from its luxuriant growth and almost without cultivation, otherwise famine would have followed, for there were not well persons enough to take care of the sick, much less to cultivate their farm.
Those who were attacked with the fever in 1822 usually escaped this year.July 17th was observed in Marietta and the immediate vicinity. The whole number of persons interred in Mound cemetery during July, August, September, and October was one hundred and forty-one. Of these seventy-two were of the township outside of the corporation; and fourteen from other townships. The number of deaths in August was forty-six; in September forty-five; and in October nineteen. Upon the Harmar side of the Muskingum---Harmar was then included in Marietta corporation---there were eleven deaths.
The American Friend said: The late sickness has made great, we had almost said irreparable, breaches in society, not only as it respect numbers, but the characters also of those taken away. In many cases children are left without any father or mother.
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO 1788 - 1881 by: H. Z. Williams
pages 427-428
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